• Yas, part of AXIAN Telecom, surpassed 1 million homes passed with fibre after acquiring Wananchi Group, expanding into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi.

• Yas unified its brand across five countries and secured a €25M IFC loan to upgrade Comoros with FTTH, FTTO, and 5G, targeting low-penetration areas.

• With 43 million subscribers in 11 markets, Yas stands out in publicly disclosed FTTH coverage, with no other regional operator having confirmed a similar residential fibre footprint.

Yas, the pan-African telecoms brand of AXIAN Telecom, has passed one million homes with fibre across its network, marking one of the largest publicly disclosed residential fibre footprints on the continent.

The milestone follows AXIAN’s $-backed expansion into East Africa, culminating in the acquisition of a 99.63% stake in Wananchi Group, completed in November. The deal incorporates the Zuku consumer broadband brand and Simbanet enterprise services into the group, expanding Yas’s fixed broadband presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi.

While “homes passed” indicates network reach rather than active subscriptions, the disclosure highlights AXIAN’s increasing focus on fixed broadband infrastructure, an area where African telecom groups have historically prioritised mobile connectivity.

AXIAN consolidated its telecom operations under the Yas brand in 2024 across Madagascar, Comoros, Senegal, Togo, and Tanzania, while its mobile financial services now operate under the Mixx by Yas brand in several markets.

In June, Yas secured a €25 million loan from the International Finance Corporation to upgrade Comoros’ digital infrastructure, including fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), fibre-to-the-office (FTTO), and 5G. The project targets underserved areas where broadband penetration remains below 40%, following the repayment of an earlier IFC facility arranged in 2019.

The fibre milestone places Yas alongside regional giants such as MTN Group, Airtel Africa, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and Safaricom. While competitors operate extensive fibre backbones and enterprise networks, AXIAN is among the few operators to publicly disclose large-scale residential FTTH coverage spanning multiple African markets.

According to AXIAN Telecom’s latest available financials, the group reported double-digit growth across key indicators, with revenue-generating subscribers rising 10% year-on-year to over 43 million, and group revenue increasing 19% to $1.22 billion, driven largely by performance in Tanzania, Madagascar, Senegal, Togo, and Comoros.

AXIAN Telecom currently operates in 11 markets across Africa and the Indian Ocean, serving more than 41 million customers, positioning fibre infrastructure as a core pillar of its next phase of growth.

Hikmatu Bilali